Closed Mind

Closed Mind (1999)

From the Liar Liar Pants on Fire files. Yesterday, on ABC's This Week, The Decider asserted he never used the concept of stay the course to describe his Iraq strategy. Think Progress has the video and catches Shrub with his voice in the cookie jar. Here's a transcript excerpt from yesterday [emphasis mine]:

STEPHANOPOULOS: James Baker says that he’s looking for something between “cut and run” and “stay the course.”

BUSH: Well, hey, listen, we’ve never been “stay the course,” George. We have been -- we will complete the mission, we will do our job, and help achieve the goal, but we’re constantly adjusting to tactics. Constantly.

And here's a stroll down memory lane [emphases mine]:

BUSH: We will stay the course. [8/30/06]

BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]

BUSH: We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We’re just going to stay the course. [12/15/03]

BUSH: And my message today to those in Iraq is: We’ll stay the course. [4/13/04]

BUSH: And that’s why we’re going to stay the course in Iraq. And that’s why when we say something in Iraq, we’re going to do it. [4/16/04]

BUSH: And so we’ve got tough action in Iraq. But we will stay the course. [4/5/04]

But you -- the American voter -- are apparently too dim-witted to remember what's been said in the past. Move along. O'Reilly will be on soon. Who's on Monday Night Football tonight? Nothing more to see here...

Bush is an archetype for closed mind thinking -- and selective memory. And let's not forget this juicy revelation from Bob Woodward seen on a recent 60 Minutes (recorded on The Huffington Post):

MIKE WALLACE : And Woodward says that no matter what's occurred in Iraq, Mr. Bush does not welcome any pessimistic assessments from his aides, because he is sure that his war has Iraq and America on the right path.

BOB WOODWARD : Late last year, he had key Republicans up to the White House to talk about the war, and said "I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me." Barney is his dog."

Oh yeah. Bring it on...

"I ain't gonna work on Maggie's Georgie's farm no more..."

[Cartoon by Mike Luckovich]

You will soon come to the garden of forking paths come Election Day. Keep your mind open. You can slog along the Stay the Course Path. Or you can forge ahead and select the Had Enough Path.

As Robert Frost noted, one will have been less traveled in recent years -- but, in November, that one will certainly make "all the difference..."

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Tags: photoblog-posts, photoblog, stay the course, iraq, bush, election 2006

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UPDATE:

Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof...
--Shakespeare, Othello (Act III, Scene III)